Currencycloud founder leaves to focus on building 'Stripe for banking'

LONDON — The founder of fintech business Currencycloud is stepping down from the board to focus on his new startup.

Nigel Verdon cofounded international money transfer business Currencycloud in 2008 and served as chairman up until two years ago. He is leaving to focus on his new fintech business RailsBank.

Verdon told Business Insider: “This is going well and my shareholders at RailsBank want me to concentrate on this fully. Currencycloud, to be honest the team are doing a stunning job. Mike [Laven, Currencycloud’s CEO] has built a brilliant team, a great brand. To be honest, I’m a sort of spare part at Currencycloud now.”

“Once you get GV and a lot of those guys, the board just gets bigger and bigger. Taking Currencycloud to the next step, once you get someone like GV on the board, they really know about scaling up businesses.”

Todd Latham, Currencycloud’s CMO and head of product, told Business Insider in an emailed statement:

“Nigel is focusing on his new venture RailsBank. He stepped down as Chairman nearly two years ago to focus on new ventures and when we raised our series D investment from new investors, including GV, we re-structured the board. We are still very close with him and collaborate closely with his new company.”

Verdon, a serial entrepreneur, has been working on his new business RailsBank for just over a year. The company aims to provide a platform for businesses to let them easily tap into global banks, rather than having to open lots of different accounts with different people all over the world.

Verdon added: “I think global banking is fundamentally broken for companies that want cross-border bank accounts, to send money, receive money, issue cards — that whole infrastructure you need as a new business or existing business. It was something I remembered when I grew Currencycloud. We wanted this infrastructure and APIs to access the banking but it just didn’t really exist.”

RailsBank is pitched at fintech companies and unregulated business like e-commerce stores who need to send and receive money across borders.

Schwab Insights

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